Offshore workers to receive holiday pay

Offshore workers are no longer on the shelf when it comes to holiday pay.

The government has changed the law on offshore working time, meaning 20,000 workers will get holiday pay for the first time.

The move, which comes into effect on 1 October, follows a three-year campaign by union Amicus to have the Working Time Directive – which entitles employees to four weeks’ annual paid leave – applied to offshore workers. The regulations will now apply to the whole of the UK continental shelf, not just to the 12-mile territorial limit.

The UK Offshore Operators Association welcomed the clarification, but added that the more substantive issue of determining what counted as “working time” remained. If all time offshore is considered to be “on call”, then large parts of the industry would “move into rapid decline”, the association warned.